Think of this as a sequel.
Less than a year after Savannah City Council members lauded Comcast executives for their efforts to respond to customer-service complaints, some council members say complaints are creeping up again.
Nor are they pleased to hear that the cable, Internet and telecommunications provider plans an April 1 “price adjustment.”
Council has scheduled an April 18 workshop session with Comcast executives to review how well the company has complied with an 11-point plan to provide money-back guarantees, improve service and expand broadband service to downtown businesses agreed to last year.
Alderman Tony Thomas, who spurred the city’s review of Comcast last year, and Mayor Edna Jackson are planning a second workshop to learn how Thomasville officials built and expanded an Internet, cable and telecommunications company serving surrounding cities.
Comcast on Friday gave early notice that it plans to announce Tuesday a no-cost upgrade that will speed up Internet service.
Download speeds will increase from 15 megabits per second to 25 for standard Internet customers. Upper-end customers will see download speeds jump from 50 to 105 megabits per second. The download speed determines how quickly your computer receives data.
Effective April 1, however, Comcast will increase prices on cable rates and, for new customers, its combo packages.
Some customers have begun receiving notices of the increases in their cable bills.
Limited basic will go from $15.75 to $17.20 a month. Expanded basic will go from $48.20 to $49.05.
Triple Play, which combines the three services, will increase $5 a month. Customers who signed up under promotions will not see an increase in April.
Andy Macke, Comcast’s vice president of government and community affairs, said the rate change represents a 3.5 percent increase, which comparatively, he said, is lower than the grocery store increases customers are seeing for peanut butter.
While Comcast hasn’t added any new channels with the rate change, it did launch a home-security system and two new options for streaming content to computer tablets.
Macke disputed that service complaints had increased, saying Comcast had not seen an uptick in complaints referred by the city or directly from customers.
Savannah’s 311 call center did see a spike in calls in January, city spokesman Bret Bell said, but complaints have since leveled off, returning to a typical one or two calls a week from the one a day logged at the beginning of the year.
Calls included complaints about loss of service and poor customer service, Bell said.
Specific complaints are forwarded to Comcast, Bell said, and the company has been good about resolving problems.
Thomas agreed Comcast has been responsive, but he said Savannah needs to explore its options. He and the mayor talked with a Thomasville official at a municipal conference and learned the city generated $130 million in revenue last year.
Chattanooga, Tenn., and Lafayette, La., also operate their own systems, Thomas said.
“There are other cities doing things with cable and high-speed Internet that we have to look at,” he said. “At this point, we’re just looking at options, and we’d have to consider cost, infrastructure and how these things are put together.”
Macke cautioned there are numerous examples of cities that tried and failed as communications providers, largely because they did not consider the continued capital investment needed beyond the initial build-out to stay competitive.
Comcast in the last two years has invested more than $15 million in upgrades for the Savannah area, he said.
Jackson, too, wants to learn more about city-run services for a number of reasons.
She has gotten complaints about long waits at Comcast’s service center and rate increases, she said.
“People can’t pay that,” she said of the planned rate changes. “I just don’t think that there should be an increase.”
The city-owned service is worth investigating, she said, to make sure residents get the best service for the least amount of cost.
Jackson also wanted to make another point clear about Comcast and its efforts to improve community relations.
The cable company has planned an April 11 meeting with neighborhood association presidents, which is set for Vic’s on the River.
Comcast was interested in having Jackson host the event, she said, but she will not.
“At this point, because we have some problems, I don’t want the community to be misled by what Comcast is doing,” she said. “Because I am not (hosting.)”